Did you know? A large majority (85 percent) of employees at small and midsize businesses in the UK have separate numbers for landlines and mobile phones.
This model suits some – but not all – people, UK business owners and IT decision makers tell us. Fifty-eight percent of SME employees like to have calls forwarded to a mobile when not at their desk. But that leaves 42 percent who prefer their calls to remain separated.
These findings paint a picture of widely divergent phone-use preferences – yet dissatisfaction need not be the inevitable result. There is a solution that meets everyone’s requirements.
This solution is cloud telephony. A cloud phone system can be configured with a single number that may be answered absolutely anywhere on any compatible device. Anyone can programme an incoming call to ring their desk phone, their mobile or indeed both.
Call forwarding rules provide complete control over where calls are taken. That’s ideal for employees that want to be contactable when out and about and for those that would prefer not to be disturbed when away from the office. It also means that if any employees are not available to answer, it’s very easy to simply reroute calls to someone who can.
We also discovered a sizeable proportion of employers are now realising their staff don’t want to be juggling multiple devices, when one can play dual roles:
- 58 percent provide staff with a single mobile phone for both business and personal use;
- 23 percent provide them just for business use;
- 19 percent make no mobile provisions and require personal phones to be used.
With a cloud solution, the question of device choice is redundant. Any smartphone or tablet can receive VoIP calls simply by installing an app. Plus, calls can be marked as business or personal when they come in.
In these times of rapidly shifting work patterns, people need control over where and how they are reached. Whether in an office, at home or on the road, cloud telephony really can give complete control over how individuals communicate and do away with frustrations and limitations for good.
*Survey of UK business owners and decision makers with 2-250 employees. Q4 2013, Circle Research.
Originally published Mar 13, 2014, updated Jun 25, 2024
